An alarm clock is intended to alert an individual at a specified time. Traditionally, an alarm clock has been used to wake up in the morning. But with increasingly hectic schedules, overlapping meetings, and responsibilities at work and at home, time management has become a necessity. Every day, people need to arrive at work or school on time, attend important meetings, remember important social events, and take medications. The consequences of arriving late or simply forgetting certain activities can be significant.
Fortunately, with advances in digital technology (e.g., computers offering richer and simpler user interfaces) and the proliferation of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, digital watches), setting alarms is easier than ever. People now rely on alarms not just for waking up in the morning, but also to get reminders for tasks and events. Many new mobile phones feature some form of a built-in alarm clock, and many tools and apps exist for managing to-do lists and reminders.
But setting alarms is only part of the solution to effective time-management. An alarm is only effective if it triggers the desired action. In daily practice, people commonly set multiple alarms or hit the snooze button because they do not want to be interrupted when the alarm goes off. In other words, ignoring alarms becomes a habit, and alarms lose significance and become ineffective. Accordingly, a better failsafe is needed to ensure that alarms have the desired effect.
Another challenge that many people face today is managing group events and activities. Many people use calendar-based systems (e.g., Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar) for these tasks. These systems can work well within a single business or family unit where everyone uses the same system, but they are ineffective when people use different calendar systems. Additionally, traditional calendar systems are designed first and foremost to organize blocks of time. Alarm functionality is an afterthought, and for simple group-based alarms, a calendar system is far too cumbersome and complex. Accordingly, a solution is needed that is not tied to a traditional calendar system, but lets people organize and manage group alarms across multiple devices and platforms in a straightforward manner.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for configuring and executing alarms. This includes creating alarms (by the “alarm creator”), inviting others to participate in alarms (“participants”), and generating notifications to alert the alarm creator and participants.
Embodiments of the invention include a multi-user, multi-device alarm system, which, according to some embodiments, maintains the confirmation status of the alarm creator and participants, any communications between the alarm creator and participants, and user management functionality.
Embodiments of the invention also utilize “personal alarms,” “group alarms,” “buddy alarms,” and/or “team alarms.” With a “personal alarm,” the alarm creator can invite participants to act as backups. When invited, embodiments alert each participant via a notification, and the participant can accept or decline their participation. When the alarm goes off, embodiments first alert the alarm creator. If the creator does not mark the alarm as “done” within a certain amount of time, embodiments alert the participants who accepted the invitation in a sequential fashion, so that they can remind the alarm creator (e.g., by using an internal chat feature, SMS message, phone call, etc.) to address the task that is the subject of the alarm. In embodiments, a personal alarm cannot be dismissed until the alarm creator marks it as “done.” Personal alarms provide alarm creators with added confidence of relying on trusted backups to make sure that they will not miss an alarm.
With a “group alarm,” a user creates an alarm for a group of participants. When invited, embodiments alert each participant via a notification, and the participant can accept or decline their participation. When the alarm goes off, embodiments alert all participants who accepted the invitation simultaneously. Each participant can then acknowledge, snooze, or withdraw participation in the alarm. The alarm creator and optionally all participants can then see the response of every participant in real-time. This innovative two-step process provides the alarm creator and participants with a fine-grained mechanism to manage and coordinate events.
In the same or alternative embodiments, alarm creators can create “buddy alarms” for other users. A buddy alarm is like a personal alarm, except that the alarm creator takes on the backup role. Particularly, the alarm creator creates an alarm and invites a “buddy.” The buddy can accept or decline participation in the buddy alarm. If the buddy accepts the alarm, embodiments alert the buddy of the alarm first. If the buddy does not mark the alarm as “done” within a certain amount of time, embodiments alert the alarm creator, so that they can remind the buddy (e.g., by chat, SMS message, phone call, etc.) to address the task that is the subject of the alarm. In embodiments, a buddy alarm cannot be dismissed until the buddy marks it as “done.” Buddy alarms provide alarm creators with added confidence that a buddy will not miss an alarm.
A “team alarm” is similar to a group alarm, except that any participant can mark the alarm as done. As with the group alarm, the creator of a team alarm can invite participants to, for example, address a particular task. When invited, embodiments alert each participant via a notification, and the participant can accept or decline their participation. When the alarm goes off, embodiments alert the alarm creator and the participants simultaneously. Team alarms can be marked as done by the alarm creator or any of the participants. When the creator or any participant marks the alarm as done, embodiments notify the creator and all participants accordingly. Team alarms provide teams with added confidence that they will not miss an alarm that can be addressed by any member of the team.
Embodiments of the invention include other functionality described in more detail below.